Friday, May 04, 2007

Speedlinking 5/4/07

Quote of the day:

"Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow."
~ Jeff Valdez

Image of the day (David Lorenz Winston):


BODY
~ Fructose is Not Better than Ordinary Sugar -- "Fructose is processed differently in the body than the far more common sugar, glucose. Glucose causes the pancreas to release insulin which drives sugar from the bloodstream into cells. Glucose causes fat cells to release leptin that makes you feel full so you eat less; it also prevents the stomach from releasing ghrelin that makes you hungry. On the other hand, fructose does not cause fat cells to release leptin and does not suppress ghrelin. This means that fructose increases hunger to make you eat more. Furthermore, the liver converts fructose far more readily to a fat called triglyceride, than it does with glucose."
~ Gene Switch That Tells Cells To Burn Fat Triggered By 'Exercise Pill' -- "By giving ordinary adult mice a drug - a synthetic designed to mimic fat - Salk Institute scientist Dr. Ronald M. Evans is now able to chemically switch on PPAR-d, the master regulator that controls the ability of cells to burn fat. Even when the mice are not active, turning on the chemical switch activates the same fat-burning process that occurs during exercise. The resulting shift in energy balance (calories in, calories burned) makes the mice resistant to weight gain on a high fat diet." If this works in humans, this guy is going to be richer than the mind can fathom.
~ BONUS ARTICLE: Top 3 Nutritional Mistakes (and how to fix them) -- "More often than not people's nutritional problems can be fixed by a couple of very simple changes and/or additions. Mike Roussell has outlined the top 3 mistakes people make (along with how to to go about fixing them)."
~ Fish, Seafood Better Than Olive Oil, Nuts Against Heart Disease -- "Researchers have found that a diet rich in fish, seafood, and grains -- also called polyunsaturated fats -- is better at preventing heart disease than a diet containing olive oil, nuts, and avocados -- called monounsaturated fats. Although both types of fats are healthy, people should probably include more of the first than the second in their diet to keep a healthy heart, the scientists say."
~ Steroid shot may ease carpal tunnel pain -- "A single corticosteroid injection in the wrist can bring temporary relief from the pain of carpal tunnel syndrome, a new research review suggests."
~ DNA mutation causes heart disease in whites -- "A treasure hunt for genes has found that up to three-quarters of people of European descent have DNA that raises their risk for heart disease -- and these genes are close to a stretch of DNA linked to diabetes."
~ If You Aren't Using This Type of Exercise You Are Missing Out Big Time -- "You may recall a series of articles written by Ryan Lee about the value and advantages of interval training, especially for time-starved folks like you and me. Conventional medicine is jumping on the bandwagon too, as so graphically described in a small Canadian study about the beneficial effect seven high-interval training sessions had on eight women in their early 20s, and after only two weeks."
~ Experts share sneaky little slim-down tricks -- "Losing weight is a major goal for many Americans. And now that obesity has grown into a public health issue, it's more important than ever. Health magazine went to the top weight-control experts for their No. 1 tips to get the weight off now. Take a look."


PSYCHE
~ Gender Differences in Reading Nonverbal Behaviour -- "Some psychologists, in testing understanding of nonverbal behaviour, have found that women fare better than men. While this might be explained by some experiential, or even intrinsic, failing in men, new research suggests it might have more to do with interpersonal goals."
~ Psychoanalysis of Resident Evil and Silent Hill -- "Resident Evil and Silent Hill have been given a psychoanalytic interpretation by two academics wanting to undercover the underlying symbolism of these popular video games."
~ Deep Brain Stimulation Shows Promise In Treatment Of Memory Problems Associated With Severe Psychiatric Disorders -- "Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic will present results of a study today that shows deep brain stimulation (DBS) is associated with improvements on formal memory tests in patients with severe psychiatric illness. Since 2001, this team of investigators has been using DBS for treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)."
~ Scientists Identify New Strategy For Preventing Acute And Chronic Brain Disease -- "Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND) have discovered that reducing levels of the protein tau can prevent seizures and neurological deficits related to Alzheimer's disease. The findings, reported in the journal Science, demonstrate that when tau is removed from mice genetically engineered to simulate Alzheimer's disease, their memory function is retained and they live a normal lifespan."
~ Schizophrenia And Depression Symptoms In Mice Caused By Gene Malfunctions -- "Researchers have demonstrated for the first time that malfunction of a gene that had been associated with schizophrenia and depression does indeed cause symptoms of those disorders. They said their findings in mice offer a possible animal model for developing treatments for schizophrenia and depression. Also, they said their findings support the theory that the two disorders share common genetic mechanisms."
~ 20 Sure-Fire Ways to Come Up With Great Ideas -- "One problem that many bloggers face is the daily challenge of coming up with a good, useful post. After blogging for awhile, new ideas may be hard to come by. But great ideas are everywhere, if you know where to look, keep your eyes open, and know how to make use of them once you find them."
~ My Turn: How I Thrive Despite Depression -- "Thanks to some new therapies and a hardy sense of humor, I've learned to live, and even thrive, with depression."
~ Study: Doing Good Makes You Feel Good -- "If you want to be happy, do something meaningful, a new study says."


CULTURE/POLITICS
~ Domestic Violence Should Be Treated As Public Health Issue, Opinion Piece Says -- "Domestic violence causes "devastating" psychological and physical damage to women and should be approached as a public health issue, Cesar Chelala -- an international public health consultant and author of the Pan American Health Organization publication "Violence in the Americas" -- writes in a Philadelphia Inquirer opinion piece."
~ India's rising middle class -- "India's consumption could leapfrog Germany's in two decades." See also" Feeling Like a Trillion Dollars.
~ James Comey's testimony hurts Gonzales -- "In his testimony before Congress today, former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty was quiet, understated, and devastating to Alberto Gonzales."
~ The TIME 100 -- "Who are the people making a difference? TIME makes its annual picks of the 100 most influential men and women shaping our world."
~ D.C. Madam -- "I have little interest in who is and isn't on the D.C. Madam's list, though the rank hypocrisy of Randal Tobias paying for sexual massages after a hard day of requiring foreign governments to swear off prostitution before receiving foreign aid to fight AIDS is pretty rich. What's instructive about this mess is that it shows exactly what it takes to get booted from the Bush administration."
~ Giuliani Remains Most Popular Candidate Despite Slight Dip in Ratings -- "Rudy Giuliani continues to be viewed more positively by the American public than any of the other leading candidates for president. Recently, his favorable rating dipped below 60% for the first time. The slight decline in Giuliani's popularity has largely been confined to Democrats and independents and liberals and moderates; his ratings have been consistent among conservatives and Republicans."
~ No More Witch Burnings for PC Offenses -- "Despite the ironic mockery, political correctness still packs a punch. Say the wrong thing today and you can be gone tomorrow, your status as a top broadcaster, university president or politician obliterated. It happens in the small space of a sentence--defrocked, banished, gonzo. Outside a courtroom, I'm not aware of many other forces in American life that can do that." Comments on this one?
~ Robert Koehler | "The Christian Taliban Is Running the Department of Defense" -- "Robert Koehler writes, 'When George Bush, in the wake of 9/11, puffed himself into Richard the Lionheart and declared he would lead the country in a 'crusade' against terrorism - you know, crusade, as in slaughter of Muslim infidels - turns out ... oh, how awkward (if you're on White House spin duty) ... he may have been speaking literally.'"
~ Is This What the Army Thinks of Us? -- "It looks like it's official: the United States Army thinks that American reporters are a threat to national security."


HABITATS/TECHNOLOGY
~ Gore vs. Schwarzenegger—who's the better environmental spokesman? -- "Al Gore's title as the leading U.S. political figure on the topic of global warming may be in danger. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been on a roll recently, pushing for tougher state environmental standards and speaking out on the issue. Our partners at MediaCurves.com decided to compare Gore and Schwarzenegger side-by-side by running clips of their recent environmental speeches for a group of 309 survey respondents. Click here to launch our video slide show of the results, which may surprise you."
~ Poor Nations Brake Greenhouse Gas Rise -- "Developing nations that are fast industrializing, such as China and India, have braked their rising greenhouse gas emissions by more than the total cuts demanded of rich nations by the UN's Kyoto Protocol."
~ Delegates Wrangle Over Climate Report -- "Delegates at the climate change conference met into the night Thursday struggling to reach consensus on how to cut greenhouse gas emissions as a way to deal with the threat of economic and environmental catastrophe from global warming."
~ Video: Killer Whales Blasted by U.S. Navy Sonar -- "Like the boom of a jet fighter taking off, sonar noise in Puget Sound was hitting orcas with enough intensity to cause the marine mammals to race to shore, a biologist reports."
~ Mercury's Core Secrets Exposed -- "Mercury has molten core, a finding that solves a 30-year old mystery about the tiny planet."
~ Grassroots good -- "Paul Hawken's new book Blessed Unrest is a much-needed analysis of the movement that's poised to change the world as we know it. It's a must read, (excerpted here in Orion magazine) even if you're not a self-described grassroots activist. In it, he states that "the movement to restore people and planet is now composed of over one million organizations" working toward ecological sustainability and social justice."
~ Harvesting Rainwater -- "If you could get 600 gallons of water at no cost, would you take it? It is possible to harvest that much water from rooftop runoff from only one inch of rainfall! Multiply that by the average number of inches that fall per year where you live and it can add up to a substantial amount of water."


INTEGRAL/BUDDHIST
~ Relevance of Buddhism In Changing Times -- "The 2,500-year-old Buddha Dharma has a special role to play because Buddhism uniquely propounds the concept of interdependence, which accords closely with the fundamental notions of modern science."
~ Ragged guests -- "Sometimes the guests that come through are pretty ragged… (Guests here meaning any content of experience, including emotions, reactivity, wounds, etc.) And if we try to push them away, ignore them, call the police, pretend they are not there, or end up wailing or running frantically around with them, they stay ragged." This is a great analogy to working with subpersonalities.
~ I've been attempting to discern in very concrete terms how shadow retrieval functions at post-conventional levels of consciousness -- "I think there is still a 3-2-1 process of shadow work accessible at transpersonal levels of development. There is still an "I" (World Soul), a "We" (the World Soul and the self), and an "It/Its" (the World Soul's shadow reincorporated into the self)."
~ intersubjective nondual -- "This is a theme I return to frequently. One reason why I think the intersubjective must be taken up is that we are at the end of the individual path."
~ *Special Event: Zaadz Symposium on Integrative Spirituality!* -- "The Symposium is called Integrative Spirituality: Grounded Contemporary Perspectives and will feature 7 blogposts over 7 days from 7 different posters on this fascinating and powerful subject!"


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